A Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for the UK?
It seems that talk of a “British Bill of Rights” (or BOR, as some will now know it by) is acquiring flesh and bones.
You can find the Green Paper published on 24 March 2009 by clicking here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/rights-responsibilities.pdf
Starring Jack Straw and Minister for Justice Michael Willis, it pledges to put an end to the ‘me’ society (!) – a lengthy quote is apposite here:
‘Responsibility – how do we encourage and promote it alongside our protection of individual rights?
2.17 Some commentators have suggested that an over-emphasis on rights, to the exclusion of notions of responsibility, can lead to a ‘me’ society rather than a ‘we’ society, in which an unbridled focus on our own individual rights and liberties risks overtaking our collective security and wellbeing, and respect for others.’
The Green Paper essentially seeks to undo some of the unpopularity of the Human Rights Act, by insisting any individual rights needs to be balanced with a responsibility to society.
It suggests, for example, that any claims for damages under the Human Rights Act could be more clearly informed by the behaviour of the individual seeking damages.
The Bill also looks to potentially include socio-economic rights and, apparently, to act as a uniying force.
3 Comments:
But I don’t really see how a Bill of Rights is going to be any more effective at bring a semblance of justice than the Human Rights Act (1998) already is (or isn’t). Surely, if anything, the British people don’t have effective access to law which protects them from the State (anti-terror legislation, police brutality)/
Symbolism, and people need a set of common values… Without unity there’s no state. The problem is when it starts becoming xenophobic…
What worries me is not only the nationalistic racism/insularity of a British Bill, but also the rhetoric of human rights hingeing on responsibilities. This makes human rights dependent on something other than our (common) humanity. It takes us back to the idea that people who do not fulfil certain responsibilities have no rights, an idea that led to ‘lawful’ atrocities committed against criminals in the middle ages, and an idea that now underlies anti-terror legislation.